§ MR. DAVID JENKINSasked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign affairs, If he has received information that a Duty of eight per cent has been recently levied by the Egyptian Government (without any official notice) on all coal landed at Port Said and Suez, intended for consumption by steamers passing through the Suez Canal; if he is aware that the French Government have protested against the impost as illegal; and whether Her Majesty's Government will take steps to ascertain if this tax, so seriously affecting British Shipping trading to the East by that route can be legally enforced?
§ MR. BOURKE,in reply, said, that recently news had been received at the Foreign Office that such a duty had been imposed by the Egyptian Government; next, that no official information had been received of the French Government having protested against it; and, thirdly, the Government, as at present advised, believed that under the Treaty of 1861 it was a legal imposition, and could be enforced, although the Egyptian Government had hitherto refrained from imposing it.